Life Sciences Commons^™

Targeting Ocean Conservation Outcomes Through Threat Reduction, Joseph A. Turner, Malcolm Starkey, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Frank Hawkins, Louise Mair, Adeline Serckx, Thomas Brooks, Beth Polidoro, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Kent Carpenter, Minna Epps, Rima W. Jabado, Nicholas B. W. Macfarlane, Leon Bennun

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Nations have committed to reductions in the global rate of species extinctions through the Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15, for ocean and terrestrial species, respectively. Biodiversity loss is worsening despite rapid growth in the number and extent of protected areas, both at sea and on land. Resolving this requires targeting the locations and actions that will deliver positive conservation outcomes for biodiversity. The Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric, developed by a consortium of experts, quantifies the contributions that abating threats and restoring habitats in specific places offer towards reducing extinction risk based on the IUCN Red List …

Do Microplastics, Vibrio Bacteria, And Warming Water Temperatures Cause Disease In The Northern Star Coral, Astrangia Poculata?, Heather Leigh Sheffey

OES Theses and Dissertations

As marine plastic pollution increases, it becomes imperative to study the effects of microplastics on marine fauna. Marine plastic debris is a vector for disease to marine invertebrates (Lamb et al., 2018; Rotjan et al., 2019). In this context, studies have shown Astrangia poculata will consume microplastics as they do their normal food (Allen et al, 2017; Rotjan et al., 2019). Further, with temperatures increasing worldwide, there is a concern the virulence of disease-causing bacteria will increase (Vezzulli et al., 2015). In a series of manipulative laboratory experiments, this study quantified changes in respiration rates and visual health of Astrangia …

Tidal Flooding In The Mid-Atlantic Region Of The Us: Water Quality Effects In The Lower Chesapeake Bay, Alfonso Macias Tapia

OES Theses and Dissertations

Many coastal areas around the globe suffer from nutrient pollution and its environmental, social, and economic consequences. Nutrient inputs can come from point (e.g., the end of a pipe) and nonpoint sources, from which the former are better constrained as sampling need only be conducted at a discharge point. Given the temporal and spatially extensive nature of tidal flooding events, they can represent another type of nonpoint source of nutrients to adjacent water bodies heretofore, unexamined and quantified. Most studies examining impacts of tidal flooding have focused on threats to resources on land, such as urban infrastructure and human health …

Margalefidinium Polykrikoides Cyst Resuspension In The Lafayette River, A Sub-Tributary Of The Chesapeake Bay, Gabrielle Greaney, Eduardo Perez Vega, Katherine Crider, Dreux Chappell, Kimberly Powell, Richard Hale, Peter Bernhardt, Margaret Mulholland

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Harmful Algal Blooms are a collection of algae in a body of water that can cause serious environmental issues and health problems in both people and aquatic organisms. Dinoflagellates are microscopic, unicellular, and eukaryotic organisms that are well known for forming harmful algal blooms because of eutrophication. Coastal Virginia suffers from HABs in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. A common species of dinoflagellate, known as Margalefidinium polykrikoides exists in the Chesapeake Bay. The purpose of this study is to determine if sediment resuspension produced by wind generated surface gravity waves cause cysts (dinoflagellate resting stages) to be suspended into …

Potential Repercussions Of Offshore Wind Energy Development In The Northeast United States For The Atlantic Surfclam Survey And Population Assessment, Sarah Borsetti, Daphne M. Munroe, Andrew M. Scheld, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

The Atlantic surfclam Spisula solidissima fishery, which spans the U.S. Northeast continental shelf, is among the most exposed to offshore wind energy development impacts because of the overlap of fishing grounds with wind energy lease areas, the hydraulic dredges used by the fishing vessels, and the location of vessel home ports relative to the fishing grounds. The Atlantic surfclam federal assessment survey is conducted using a commercial fishing vessel in locations that overlap with the offshore wind energy development. Once wind energy turbines, cables, and scour protection are installed, survey operations within wind energy lease areas may be curtailed or …

A Multi-Taxon Analysis Of European Red Lists Reveal Major Threats To Biodiversity, Axel Hochkirch, Melanie Bilz, Catarina C. Ferreira, Anja Danielczak, David Allen, Ana Nieto, Carlo Rondinini, Kate Harding, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Caroline M. Pollock, Mary Seddon, Jean-Christophe Vié, Keith N. A. Alexander, Emily Beech, Manuel Biscoito, Yoan Braud, Ian J. Burfield, Filippo Maria Buzzetti, Marta Cálix, Kent E. Carpenter, Ning Labbish Chao, Dragan Chobanov, Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Bruce B. Collette, Mia T. Comeros-Raynal, Neil Cox, Matthew Craig, Annabelle Cuttelod, William R. T. Darwall, Benoit Dodelin, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Eve Englefield, Michael F. Fay, Nicholas Fettes, Jörg Freyhof, Silvia García, Mariana García Criado, Michael Harvey, Nick Hodgetts, Christina Ieronymidou, Vincent J. Kalkman, Shelagh P. Kell, James Kemp, Sonia Khela, Richard V. Lansdown, Julia M. Lawson, Danna J. Leaman, Joana Magos Brehm, Nigel Maxted, Rebecca M. Miller, Eike Neubert, Baudewijn Odé, David Pollard, Riley Pollom, Rob Pople, Juan José Presa Asensio, Gina M. Ralph, Hassan Rankou, Malin Rivers, Stuart P. M. Roberts, Barry Russell, Alexander Sennikov, Fabien Soldati, Anna Staneva, Emilie Stump, Andy Symes, Dmitry Telnov, Helen Temple, Andrew Terry, Anastasiya Timoshyna, Chris Van Swaay, Henry Väre, Rachel H. L. Walls, Luc Willemse, Brett Wilson, Jemma Window, Emma G. E. Wright, Thomas Zuna-Kratky

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Biodiversity loss is a major global challenge and minimizing extinction rates is the goal of several multilateral environmental agreements. Policy decisions require comprehensive, spatially explicit information on species’ distributions and threats. We present an analysis of the conservation status of 14,669 European terrestrial, freshwater and marine species (ca. 10% of the continental fauna and flora), including all vertebrates and selected groups of invertebrates and plants. Our results reveal that 19% of European species are threatened with extinction, with higher extinction risks for plants (27%) and invertebrates (24%) compared to vertebrates (18%). These numbers exceed recent IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity …

An Integrative Salt Marsh Conceptual Framework For Global Comparisons, Erik S. Yando, Scott F. Jones, W. Ryan James, Denise D. Colombano, Diana I. Montemayor, Stefanie Nolte, Jacqueline L. Raw, Shelby L. Ziegler, Luzhen Chen, Daniele Daffonchio, Marco Fusi, Kerrylee Rogers, Liudmila Sergienko

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Salt marshes occur globally across climatic and coastal settings, providing key linkages between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, salt marsh science lacks a unifying conceptual framework; consequently, historically well-studied locations have been used as normative benchmarks. To allow for more effective comparisons across the diversity of salt marshes, we developed an integrative salt marsh conceptual framework. We review ecosystem-relevant drivers from global to local spatial scales, integrate these multi-scale settings into a framework, and provide guidance on applying the framework using specific variables on 11 global examples. Overall, this framework allows for appropriate comparison of study sites by accounting for …

Blue Carbon Science, Management And Policy Across A Tropical Urban Landscape, Daniel A. Friess, Yasmine M. Gatt, Tze Kwan Fung, Jahson B. Alemu I, Natasha Bhatia, Rebecca Case, Siew Chin Chua, Danwei Huang, Valerie Kwan, Kiah Eng Lim, Yudhishthra Nathan, Yan Xiang Ow, Daniel Saavedra-Hortua, Taylor M. Sloey, Erik S. Yando, Hassan Ibrahim, Lian Pin Koh, Jun Yu Puah, Serena Lay-Ming Teo, Karenne Tun, Lynn Wei Wong, Siti Maryam Yaakub

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The ability of vegetated coastal ecosystems to sequester high rates of “blue” carbon over millennial time scales has attracted the interest of national and international policy makers as a tool for climate change mitigation. Whereas focus on blue carbon conservation has been mostly on threatened rural seascapes, there is scope to consider blue carbon dynamics along highly fragmented and developed urban coastlines. The tropical city state of Singapore is used as a case study of urban blue carbon knowledge generation, how blue carbon changes over time with urban development, and how such knowledge can be integrated into urban planning alongside …

The Importance Of Winter Dinoflagellate Blooms In Chesapeake Bay— A Missing Link In Bay Productivity, Nicole C. Millette, Sophie Clayton, Margaret R. Mulholland, Leah Gibala-Smith, Michael Lane

OES Faculty Publications

It is widely assumed that phytoplankton abundance and productivity decline during temperate winters because of low irradiance and temperatures. However, winter phytoplankton blooms commonly occur in temperate estuaries, but they are often undocumented because of reduced water quality monitoring in winter. The small body of in situ work that has been done on winter blooms suggests they can be of enormous consequence to ecosystems. However, because monitoring is often reduced or stopped altogether during winter, it is unclear how widespread these blooms are or how long they can last. We analyzed an over 30-year record of monthly phytoplankton monitoring samples …

Atlantic Surfclam (Spisula Solidissima) Population Demographics And Distribution Along The Middle Atlantic Bight, Mauricio González Díaz

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) is a long-lived benthic biomass dominant organism that occurs on the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB) continental shelf between 10 m and 50 m. Trends in Atlantic surfclam population specific growth and mortality rates were analyzed using four decades of age and length observations obtained from NOAA stock surveys from the 1980s to 2010s in six regions distributed along the MAB. Atlantic surfclam specific growth rates and asymptotic lengths were estimated from the age and length observations using the von Bertalanffy growth model. The analysis showed that the Atlantic surfclam median asymptotic length in …

Nestedness And Modularity Of Avian Metacommunities Across Gradients Of Chesapeake Bay Island Characteristics, Grant Walter Bowers

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Islands are not only great models for understanding the ways in which communities are linked by the dispersal of their members to form metacommunities, but are of particular interest to conservationists. One important aspect of metacommunity structure is the degree of nestedness—whether or not less speciose communities are perfect subsets of more speciose communities. Another important metric of metacommunity structure is modularity—the degree to which communities belong to modules composed of other communities that share the same species but have little species overlap with communities from different modules. Environmental gradients have received insufficient attention as predictors of metacommunity nestedness and …

Monitoring Extinction Risk And Threats Of The World's Fishes Based On The Sampled Red List Index, Rafael Miranda, Imanol Miqueleiz, William Darwall, Catherine Sayer, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Kent E. Carpenter, Beth Polidoro, Nadia Dewhurst-Richman, Caroline Pollock, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Robin Freeman, Ben Collen, Monika Böhm

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Global biodiversitytargets require us to identify species at risk of extinction and quantify status and trends of biodiversity. The Red List Index (RLI) tracks trends in the conservation status of entire species groups over time by monitoring changes in categories assigned to species. Here, we calculate this index for the world’s fishes in 2010, using a sampled approach to the RLI based on a randomly selected sample of 1,500 species, and also present RLI splits for freshwater and marine systems separately. We further compare specific traits of a worldwide fish list to our sample to assess its representativeness. Overall, 15.1% …

Habitat Restoration Restores Underwater Soundscapes And Larval Recruitment, Jack Butler, Emily R. Anderson, Mark J. Butler

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Habitat degradation alters many ecosystem processes, and the potential for the reestablishment of ecosystem function through restoration is an area of active research. Among marine systems, coastal habitats are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic degradation and, in response, are the focus of marine ecological restoration. One of the crucial functions of structurally complex coastal habitats (e.g., saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, coral reefs) are as nurseries to coastal and offshore species, many of whose larvae utilize sound to locate suitable nursery habitat. However, the effect of habitat degradation and subsequent restoration on underwater soundscapes and their function as navigational cues for …

A Trait‐Based Framework For Assessing The Vulnerability Of Marine Species To Human Impacts, Nathalie Butt, Benjamin S. Halpern, Casey S. O'Hara, A. Louise Allcock, Beth Polidoro, Samantha Sherman, Maria Byrne, Charles Birkeland, Ross G. Dwyer, Melanie Frazier, Bradley K. Woodworth, Claudia P. Arango, Michael J. Kingsford, Vinay Udyawer, Pat Hutchings, Elliot Scanes, Emily Jane Mcclaren, Sara M. Maxwell, Guillermo Diaz-Pulido, Emma Dugan, Blake Alexander Simmons, Amelia S. Wenger, Christi Linardich, Carissa J. Klein

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine species and ecosystems are widely affected by anthropogenic stressors, ranging from pollution and fishing to climate change. Comprehensive assessments of how species and ecosystems are impacted by anthropogenic stressors are critical for guiding conservation and management investments. Previous global risk or vulnerability assessments have focused on marine habitats, or on limited taxa or specific regions. However, information about the susceptibility of marine species across a range of taxa to different stressors everywhere is required to predict how marine biodiversity will respond to human pressures. We present a novel framework that uses life-history traits to assess species’ vulnerability to a …

Nutrient Improvements In Chesapeake Bay: Direct Effect Of Load Reductions And Implications For Coastal Management, Rebecca R. Murphy, Jennifer Keisman, Jon Harcum, Renee R. Karrh, Mike Lane, Elgin S. Perry, Qian Zhang

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

In Chesapeake Bay in the United States, decades of management efforts have resulted in modest reductions of nutrient loads from the watershed, but the corresponding improvements in estuarine water quality have not consistently followed. Generalized additive models were used to directly link river flows and nutrient loads from the watershed to nutrient trends in the estuary on a station-by-station basis, which allowed for identification of exactly when and where responses are happening. Results show that Chesapeake Bay’s total nitrogen and total phosphorus conditions are mostly improving after accounting for variation in freshwater flow. Almost all of these improving nutrient concentrations …

The Challenges Of Growing Orchids From Seeds For Conservation: An Assessment Of Asymbiotic Techniques, Devani Jolman, Martín I. Batalla, Alexis Hungerford, Pryce Norwood, Noah Tait, Lisa E. Wallace

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Lewis Knudson first successfully germinated orchid seeds asymbiotically on artificial medium in 1922. While many orchid species have since been grown asymbiotically, the tremendous variation in how species respond to artificial medium and growth conditions ex situ has also become apparent in the past century. In this study, we reviewed published journal articles on asymbiotic orchid seed germination to provide a summary of techniques used and to evaluate if these differ between terrestrial and epiphytic species, to identify areas where additional research is needed, and to evaluate whether asymbiotic germination could be used more often in ex situ conservation. We …

Tying Policy To System: Does The Ross Sea Region Marine Reserve Protect Transport Pathways Connecting The Life History Of Antarctic Toothfish?, Julian Ashford, Michael Dinniman, Cassandra Brooks, Lian Wei, Guoping Zhu

OES Faculty Publications

A central objective of the Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area (MPA) is to protect areas important to the life cycle of Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni), a top fish predator and by far the region’s most important commercial species. Juvenile toothfish predominate in deep basins along the inner continental shelf, whereas adults are found mostly along the continental slope and spawning areas on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. The inner basins connect to the continental slope via glacial troughs and predictable transport along each trough results in exchange with the Antarctic Slope Current as it flows westward. From the slope, …

Mismatches In Scale Between Highly Mobile Marine Megafauna And Marine Protected Areas, Melinda G. Conners, Nicholas B. Sisson, Pierre D. Agamboue, Philip W. Atkinson, Alastair M.M. Baylis, Scott R. Benson, Barbara A. Block, Steven J. Bograd, Pablo Bordino, W. D. Bowen, Paul Brickle, Ignacio M. Bruno, Victoria González Carman, Cory D. Champagne, Daniel E. Crocker, Daniel P. Costa, Tiffany M. Dawson, Tomohiro Deguchi, Heidi Dewar, Philip D. Doherty, Tomo Eguchi, Angela Formia, Brendan J. Godley, Rachel T. Graham, Christian Gredzens, Kristen M. Hart, Lucy A. Hawkes, Suzanne Henderson, Robert William Henry Iii, Luis A. Hückstädt, Ladd M. Irvine, Sarah S. Kienle, Carey E. Kuhn, Damian Lidgard, Stephanie A. Loredo, Bruce R. Mate, Kristian Metcalfe, Jacob Nzegoue, Carmen K. Kouerey Oliwina, Rachel A. Orben, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Richard Parnell, Elizabeth P. Pike, Patrick W. Robinson, Howard C. Rosenbaum, Fumio Sato, Scott A. Shaffer, Donna J. Shaver, Samantha E. Simmons, Brian J. Smith, Guy-Philippe Sounguet, Robert M. Suryan, David R. Thompson, Megan Tierney, Dominic Tilley, Hillary S. Young, Victoria Warwick-Evans, Michael J. Weise, Randall S. Wells, Bradley P. Wilkinson, Matthew J. Witt, Sarah M. Maxwell

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine protected areas (MPAs), particularly large MPAs, are increasing in number and size around the globe in part to facilitate the conservation of marine megafauna under the assumption that large-scale MPAs better align with vagile life histories; however, this alignment is not well established. Using a global tracking dataset from 36 species across five taxa, chosen to reflect the span of home range size in highly mobile marine megafauna, we show most MPAs are too small to encompass complete home ranges of most species. Based on size alone, 40% of existing MPAs could encompass the home ranges of the smallest …

Frameless-Finding And Refining A Sampling Frame For Surveying Recreational Fisheries: Lessons From Estimating Swedish Harvest Of Western Baltic Cod, Hege Sande, Nuno Prista, Annica De Groote, Michele Casini, Cynthia Jones, Andreas Sundelöf

OES Faculty Publications

To achieve sustainable fisheries, advice to management should be based on reliable science and unbiased data. Attaining quality data (i.e. precise and unbiased) on recreational fishing can be challenging, particularly when prior knowledge of the sector is limited and a proper sample frame of recreational fishers or vessels does not exist. In this study, a registry of access points was constructed for the Swedish south–west coast and used as a spatial sample frame in determining both effort and catches of the private boat fishery. Sampling dates, times for sampling, and access points visited were selected using probabilistic methods, ensuring unbiased …

Editorial: Advances In Understanding Lateral Blue Carbon Export From Coastal Ecosystems, Kai Xiao, Nengwang Chen, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Joseph James Tamborski, Damien Troy Maher, Xuan Yu

OES Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Efficacy Of Sediment Contaminant Remediation Of The Benthos In A Segment Of The Southern Branch Of The Elizabeth River, Colton Martin

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

The bottom sediment of the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, was historically contaminated with hydrocarbons from industrial sources especially wood treatment facilities. The Elizabeth River Project selected a section of the bottom off Money Point in the Southern Branch for a sediment contaminant remediation effort. Prior to initiation of remediation efforts, a survey occurred in summer 2010 to characterize the ecological condition of the benthic communities off Money Point compared to benthic communities of a benthic region across the channel and northwest of Money Point near Blows Creek. That study characterized the benthos of …

Overfishing Drives Over One-Third Of All Sharks And Rays Toward A Global Extinction Crisis, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Nathan Pacoureau, Cassandra L. Rigby, Riley A. Pollom, Rima W. Jabado, David A. Ebert, Brittany Finucci, Caroline M. Pollock, Jessica Cheok, Danielle H. Derrick, Katelyn B. Herman, C. Samantha Sherman, Wade J. Vanderwright, Julia M. Lawson, Rachel H.L. Walls, John K. Carlson, Patricia Charvet, Kinattumkara K. Bineesh, Daniel Fernando, Gina M. Ralph, Jay H. Matsushiba, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Sonja V. Fordham, Colin A. Simpfendorfer

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The scale and drivers of marine biodiversity loss are being revealed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment process. We present the first global reassessment of 1,199 species in Class Chondrichthyes-sharks, rays, and chimeras. The first global assessment (in 2014) concluded that one-quarter (24%) of species were threatened. Now, 391 (32.6%) species are threatened with extinction. When this percentage of threat is applied to Data Deficient species, more than one-third (37.5%) of chondrichthyans are estimated to be threatened, with much of this change resulting from new information. Three species are Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), representing …

Improvement Of Biochar Through Ozonization And Biosafety Of Genetically Engineered Cyanobacteria, Oumar Sacko

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Through the innovative technique of biochar post-production surface oxygenation by ozonization, we were able to improve certain properties of biochar. In project one, the incubation of an insoluble phosphate rock material (hydroxyapatite) with the wet ozonized pine 400 biochar and its filtrate resulted in a solubilization of 80 times more phosphate from hydroxyapatite (569.0 mg/L ± 6.4) compared to the pure water-hydroxyapatite control (7.2 mg/L ± 0.3). The ozonized biochar may provide a new possible way to unlock the phosphorus from insoluble phosphate mineral phases. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a key property of biochar when used as a …

Rainfall-Runoff Mechanisms And Flood Mitigation In A Coastal Watershed With Numerous Wetlands And Ponds, Homa Jalaeian Taghadomi

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzed mechanisms of flooding in Blackwater River Watershed, located in coastal Virginia and hydraulically connected with mid-Atlantic Ocean. The analysis was based on the examination and simulation of the rainfall-runoff relationship, and such an analysis is very important for conventional water resource management and dealing with hydrologic extremes (e.g., floods and droughts, as well as ecological and pollution discharges). The rainfall-runoff relationship is a quantitative description of the hydrologic cycle, a dynamic process that can be interactively influenced by various factors, namely climate, topography, soils, land use and land cover, and land management practice.

In the past 60 …

Variation In Coral Thermotolerance Across A Pollution Gradient Erodes As Coral Symbionts Shift To More Heat-Tolerant Genera, Melissa S. Naugle, Thomas A. Oliver, Daniel J. Barshis, Ruth D. Gates, Cheryl A. Logan

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Phenotypic plasticity is one mechanism whereby species may cope with stressful environmental changes associated with climate change. Reef building corals present a good model for studying phenotypic plasticity because they have experienced rapid climate-driven declines in recent decades (within a single generation of many corals), often with differential survival among individuals during heat stress. Underlying differences in thermotolerance may be driven by differences in baseline levels of environmental stress, including pollution stress. To examine this possibility, acute heat stress experiments were conducted on Acropora hyacinthus from 10 sites around Tutuila, American Samoa with differing nutrient pollution impact. A threshold-based heat …

Advancing Applied Research In Conservation Criminology Through The Evaluation Of Corruption Prevention, Enhancing Compliance, And Reducing Recidivism, Jessica S. Kahler, Joseph W. Rivera, Zachary T. Steele, Pilar Morales-Giner, Christian J. Rivera, Carol F. Ahossin, Ashpreet Kaur, Diane J. Episcopio-Sturgeon

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Concomitant with an increase in the global illegal wildlife trade has been a substantial increase in research within traditional conservation-based sciences and conservation and green criminology. While the integration of criminological theories and methods into the wildlife conservation context has advanced our understanding of and practical responses to illegal wildlife trade, there remain discrepancies between the number of empirical vs. conceptual studies and a disproportionate focus on a few select theories, geographical contexts, and taxonomic groups. We present three understudied or novel applications of criminology and criminal justice research within the fields of fisheries, forestry, and wildlife conservation. First, we …

First Record Of Blacknape Large-Eye Bream Gymnocranius Satoi (Perciformes: Lethrinidae) In The Philippines, Nicko Amor Flores, Jade Tifany Rey, Jeffrey T. Williams, Kent Carpenter, Mudjekeewis Santos

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The Philippines has been regarded as the center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity, having the highest number of fish species per square area in the world. The blacknape large-eye bream, Gymnocranius satoi, has been reported to occur from Southern Japan, Taiwan to Northwestern Australia and to the Coral Sea, but has not previously been recorded from the Philippines. From 2011 – 2019, the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) collaborated with the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution (NMNH/SI), USA, and the Old Dominion University (ODU), Virgina, USA, to inventory all commercial fish …

Triple Oxygen Isotope Measurements (Δ'17O) Of Body Water Reflect Water Intake, Metabolism, And Δ18O Of Ingested Water In Passerines, Pablo Sabat, Seth D. Newsome, Stephanie Pinochet, Roberto Nespolo, Juan Carlos Sanchez-Hernandez, Karen Maldonado, Alexander R. Gerson, Zachary D. Sharp, John P. Whiteman

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding physiological traits and ecological conditions that influence a species reliance on metabolic water is critical to creating accurate physiological models that can assess their ability to adapt to environmental perturbations (e.g., drought) that impact water availability. However, relatively few studies have examined variation in the sources of water animals use to maintain water balance, and even fewer have focused on the role of metabolic water. A key reason is methodological limitations. Here, we applied a new method that measures the triple oxygen isotopic composition of a single blood sample to estimate the contribution of metabolic water to the body …

Wicked Ideas For Wicked Problems: Marine Debris And The Complexity Of Governance, Dawn Helene Driesbach

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Myriad challenges regarding earth's common spaces, those unregulated by sovereign state authorities, mount and intensify as resources diminish and competition for commercial, scientific and security advantages increases; the pollution and degradation of those spaces simultaneously expands. Threats to the global commons complicate efforts to achieve international consensus which impedes attempts to develop effective governance. As an example, marine debris is a growing problem and is an existential threat to the global commons.

This dissertation aims to characterize marine debris as a wicked problem and explores the complexity of governance in the global ocean commons by answering two fundamental questions. Under …

Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold, But Moderately Variable: The Influence Of Environmental Variability On Coral Thermal Tolerance, Courtney Nicole Klepac

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Anthropogenic climate change is causing an increase in the frequency and severity of marine heat waves, resulting in declining health of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. Coral bleaching events – the breakdown in symbiosis between the coral host and their intracellular photosynthetic algae – are increasingly common in recent years and contribute to widespread losses in coral cover. However, bleaching and heat stress responses vary across spatial scales both within and among coral species. Coral populations native to highly variable environments can have greater bleaching resistance than corals from more stable habitats and corals transplanted into these variable reef sites can …